National Marine week - Ferry friendly environment

As National Marine Week starts, Hovertravel is urging everyone to visit the beach to experience the sights, smells and sensations of the seashore. As a beach-based business, Hovertravel’s terminals are ideally placed to become part of a day trip to the seaside and as the world’s only year-round passenger hovercraft service, its operations are much less harmful to the environment than traditional shipping.

Loretta Lale, Head of Commercial at Hovertravel, explains: “For over 50 years we have been transporting people and packages from beach to beach, giving holidaymakers the chance to experience the sandy shores of the Isle of Wight and island residents the chance to visit their nearest aquarium, Blue Reef in Southsea. Today our hovercraft represent the most advanced passenger hovercraft technology in the world and this in turn means that the marine environment can be travelled over in a sensitive, more direct manor, without needing to dredge and disturb it. ”These benefits come from the way hovercraft function by creating a pressurised zone of air to lift the entire hull above the surface. Hovertravel’s 12000TD craft, using the most modern mechanical innovations and technology found in a hovercraft today, can carry 12 tonnes of payload at over 1.5 meters above the surface. There is no displacement of craft weight in the water and the hull is not in contact meaning marine life are left alone to their own devices. The two engines which provide power for lift and thrust in the 12000TD are housed internally within the hull and are therefore isolated from the ecosystems the hovercraft may be passing over instead of requiring the ecosystem to provide the material for propulsion. This minimal amount of contact with the water also means the wash created even when travelling at high speeds remains low.

 For more details about Hovertravel please visit: https://www.hovertravel.co.uk/ and to understand more about The Wildlife Trusts' inspirational and engaging citizen science project please visit: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/get-involved/other-ways-get-involved/shoresearch